to interrupt the sequence of the scenes; but now we must turn back a
little and say that there are many other works to be seen by the hand of
the same man. One is a panel which is now on the high-altar of S.
Domenico in Pesaro. In the Church of S. Zaccheria in Venice, in the
Chapel of S. Girolamo, there is a panel of Our Lady and many saints,
executed with great diligence, with a building painted with much
judgment; and in the same city, in the Sacristy of the Friars Minor,
called the "Ca Grande," there is another by the same man's hand, wrought
with beautiful design and a good manner. There is likewise one in S.
Michele di Murano, a monastery of Monks of Camaldoli; and in the old
Church of S. Francesco della Vigna, a seat of the Frati del Zoccolo,
there was a picture of a Dead Christ, so beautiful that it was highly
extolled before Louis XI, King of France, whereupon he demanded it from
its owners with great insistence, so that they were forced, although
very unwillingly, to gratify his wish. In its place there was put
another with the name of the same Giovanni, but not so beautiful or so
well executed as the first; and some believe that this substitute was
wrought for the most part by Girolamo Moretto, a pupil of Giovanni. The
Confraternity of S. Girolamo also possesses a work with little figures
by the same Bellini, which is much extolled. And in the house of Messer
Giorgio Cornaro there is a picture, likewise very beautiful, containing
Christ, Cleophas, and Luke.
In the aforesaid Hall he also painted, though not at the same time, a
scene of the Venetians summoning forth from the Monastery of the Carita
a Pope--I know not which--who, having fled to Venice, had secretly
served for a long time as cook to the monks of that monastery; in which
scene there are many portraits from the life, and other very beautiful
figures.
[Illustration: MADONNA AND SAINTS
(_After the panel by =Giovanni Bellini=. Venice: S. Francesco della
Vigna_)
_Anderson_]
No long time after, certain portraits were taken to Turkey by an
ambassador as presents for the Grand Turk, which caused such
astonishment and marvel to that Emperor, that, although pictures are
forbidden among that people by the Mahometan law, nevertheless he
accepted them with great good-will, praising the art and the craftsman
without ceasing; and what is more, he demanded that the master of the
work should be sent to him. Whereupon the Senate, considering that
Giovanni had reached an age when he could ill endure hardships, not to
mention that they did not wish to deprive their own city of so great a
man, particularly because he was then engaged on the aforesaid Hall of
the Great Council, determined to send his brother Gentile, believing
that he would do as well as Giovanni. Therefore, having caused Gentile
to make his preparations, they brought him safely in their own galleys
to Constantinople, where, after being presented by the Commissioner of
the Signoria to Mahomet, he was received very willingly and treated with
much favour as something new, above all after he had given that Prince a
most lovely picture, which he greatly admired, being wellnigh unable to
believe that a mortal man had within himself so much divinity, so to
speak, as to be able to represent the objects of nature so vividly.
Gentile had been there no long time when he portrayed the Emperor
Mahomet from the life so well, that it was held a miracle. That Emperor,
after having seen many specimens of his art, asked Gentile whether he
had the courage to paint his own portrait; and Gentile, having answered
"Yes," did not allow many days to pass before he had made his own
portrait with a mirror, with such resemblance that it appeared alive.
This he brought to the Sultan, who marvelled so greatly thereat, that he
could not but think that he had some divine spirit within him; and if it
had not been that the exercise of this art, as has been said, is
forbidden by law among the Turks, that Emperor would never have allowed
Gentile to go. But either in fear of murmurings, or for some other
reason, one day he summoned him to his presence, and after first causing
him to be thanked for the courtesy that he had shown, and then praising
him in marvellous fashion as a man of the greatest excellence, he bade
him demand whatever favour he wished, for it would be granted to him
without fail. Gentile, like the modest and upright man that he was,
asked for nothing save a letter of recommendation to the most Serene
Senate and the most Illustrious Signoria of Venice, his native city.
This was written in the warmest possible terms, and afterwards he was
dismissed with honourable gifts and with the dignity of Chevalier. Among
other things given to him at parting by that Sovereign, in addition to
many privileges, there was placed round his neck a chain wrought in the
Turkish manner, equal in weight to 250 gold crowns, which is still in
the hands of his heirs in Venice.
Departing from Constantinople, Gentile returned after a most prosperous
voyage to Venice, where he was received with gladness by his brother
Giovanni and by almost the whole city, all men rejoicing at the honours
paid to his talent by Mahomet. Afterwards, on going to make his
reverence to the Doge and the Signoria, he was received very warmly, and
commended for having given great satisfaction to that Emperor according
to their desire. And to the end that he might see in what great account
they held the letters in which that Prince had recommended him, they
decreed him a provision of 200 crowns a year, which was paid to him for
the rest of his life. Gentile made but few works after his return;
finally, having almost reached the age of eighty, and having executed
the aforesaid works and many others, he passed to the other life, and
was given honourable burial by his brother Giovanni in S. Giovanni e
Paolo, in the year 1501.
Giovanni, thus bereft of Gentile, whom he had ever loved most tenderly,
went on doing a little work, although he was old, to pass the time. And
having devoted himself to making portraits from the life, he introduced
into Venice the fashion that everyone of a certain rank should have his
portrait painted either by him or by some other master; wherefore in all
the houses of Venice there are many portraits, and in many gentlemen's
houses one may see their fathers and grandfathers, up to the fourth
generation, and in some of the more noble they go still farther back--a
fashion which has ever been truly worthy of the greatest praise, and
existed even among the ancients. Who does not feel infinite pleasure and
contentment, to say nothing of the honour and adornment that they
confer, at seeing the images of his ancestors, particularly if they have
been famous and illustrious for their part in governing their republics,
for noble deeds performed in peace or in war, or for learning or any
other notable and distinguished talent? And to what other end, as has
been said in another place, did the ancients set up images of their
great men in public places, with honourable inscriptions, than to
kindle in the minds of their successors a love of excellence and of
glory?
[Illustration: GENTILE BELLINI: S. DOMINIC
(_London: National Gallery, 1440. Canvas_)]
For Messer Pietro Bembo, then, before he went to live with Pope Leo X,
Giovanni made a portrait of the lady that he loved, so lifelike that,
even as Simone Sanese had been celebrated in the past by the Florentine
Petrarca, so was Giovanni deservedly celebrated in his verses by this
Venetian, as in the following sonnet:
O imagine mia celeste e pura,
where, at the beginning of the second quatrain, he says,
Credo che'l mio Bellin con la figura,
with what follows. And what greater reward can our craftsmen desire for
their labours than that of being celebrated by the pens of illustrious
poets, as that most excellent Tiziano has been by the very learned
Messer Giovanni della Casa, in that sonnet which begins--
Ben veggio, Tiziano, in forme nuove,
and in that other--
Son queste, Amor, le vaghe treccie bionde.
Was not the same Bellini numbered among the best painters of his age by
the most famous Ariosto, at the beginning of the thirty-third canto of
the "_Orlando Furioso_"?
But to return to the works of Giovanni--that is, to his principal works,
for it would take too long to try to make mention of all the pictures
and portraits that are in the houses of gentlemen in Venice and in other
parts of that country. In Rimini, for Signor Sigismondo Malatesti, he
made a large picture containing a Pieta, supported by two little boys,
which is now in S. Francesco in that city. And among other portraits he
made one of Bartolommeo da Liviano, Captain of the Venetians.
Giovanni had many disciples, for he was ever most willing to teach
anyone. Among them, now sixty years ago, was Jacopo da Montagna, who
imitated his manner closely, in so far as is shown by his works, which
are to be seen in Padua and in Venice. But the man who imitated him most
faithfully and did him the greatest honour was Rondinello da Ravenna,
of whom Giovanni availed himself much in all his works. This master
painted a panel in S. Domenico at Ravenna, and another in the Duomo,
which is held a very beautiful example of that manner. But the work that
surpassed all his others was that which he made in the Church of S.
Giovanni Battista, a seat of the Carmelite Friars, in the same city; in
which picture, besides Our Lady, he made a very beautiful head in a
figure of S. Alberto, a friar of that Order, and the whole figure is
much extolled. A pupil of Giovanni's, also, although he gained but
little thereby, was Benedetto Coda of Ferrara, who dwelt in Rimini,
where he made many pictures, leaving behind him a son named Bartolommeo,
who did the same. It is said that Giorgione Castelfranco also pursued
his first studies of art under Giovanni, and likewise many others, both
from the territory of Treviso and from Lombardy, of whom there is no
need to make record.
Finally, having lived ninety years, Giovanni passed from this life,
overcome by old age, leaving an eternal memorial of his name in the
works that he had made both in his native city of Venice and abroad; and
he was honourably buried in the same church and in the same tomb in
which he had laid his brother Gentile to rest. Nor were there wanting in
Venice men who sought to honour him when dead with sonnets and epigrams,
even as he, when alive, had honoured both himself and his country. About
the same time that these Bellini were alive, or a little before, many
pictures were painted in Venice by Giacomo Marzone, who, among other
things, painted one in the Chapel of the Assumption in S. Lena--namely,
the Virgin with a palm, S. Benedict, S. Helen, and S. John; but in the
old manner, with the figures on tip-toe, as was the custom of those
painters who lived in the time of Bartolommeo da Bergamo.
FOOTNOTES:
[18] Poplar.
[19] White poplar.
COSIMO ROSSELLI
LIFE OF COSIMO ROSSELLI
PAINTER OF FLORENCE
Many men take an unholy delight in covering others with ridicule and
scorn--a delight which generally turns to their own confusion, as it
came to pass in the case of Cosimo Rosselli, who threw back on their own
heads the ridicule of those who sought to vilify his labours. This
Cosimo, although he was not one of the rarest or most excellent painters
of his time, nevertheless made works that were passing good. In his
youth he painted a panel in the Church of S. Ambrogio in Florence, which
is on the right hand as one enters the church; and three figures over an
arch for the Nuns of S. Jacopo delle Murate. In the Church of the Servi,
also in Florence, he painted the panel of the Chapel of S. Barbara; and
in the first court, before one enters into the church, he wrought in
fresco the story of the Blessed Filippo taking the Habit of Our Lady.
For the Monks of Cestello he painted the panel of their high-altar, with
another in a chapel in the same church; and likewise that one which is
in a little church above the Bernardino, beside the entrance to
Cestello. He painted a standard for the children of the Company of the
said Bernardino, and likewise that of the Company of S. Giorgio, on
which there is an Annunciation. For the aforesaid Nuns of S. Ambrogio he
painted the Chapel of the Miracle of the Sacrament, which is a passing
good work, and is held the best of his in Florence; in this he
counterfeited a procession on the piazza of that church, with the Bishop
bearing the Tabernacle of the said Miracle, accompanied by the clergy
and by an infinity of citizens and women in costumes of those times.
Here, among many others, is a portrait from life of Pico della
Mirandola, so excellently wrought that it appears not a portrait but a
living man. In the Church of S. Martino in Lucca, by the entrance into
the church through the lesser door of the principal facade, on the right
hand, he painted a scene of Nicodemus making the statue of the Holy
Cross, and then that statue being brought by sea in a boat and by land
to Lucca. In this work are many portraits, and in particular that of
Paolo Guinigi, which he copied from one done in clay by Jacopo della
Fonte when the latter made the tomb of Paolo's wife. In S. Marco at
Florence, in the Chapel of the Cloth Weavers, he painted a panel with
the Holy Cross in the middle, and, at the sides, S. Mark, S. John the
Evangelist, S. Antonino, Archbishop of Florence, and other figures.
Being afterwards summoned, with the other painters, to execute the work
that Pope Sixtus IV had undertaken in the Chapel of the Palace, he
laboured there in company with Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandajo,
the Abbot of S. Clemente, Luca da Cortona, and Pietro Perugino, and
painted three scenes with his own hand, wherein he depicted the
Submersion of Pharaoh in the Red Sea, the Preaching of Christ to the
people on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias, and the Last Supper of the
Apostles with the Saviour. In this last scene he made an octagonal table
drawn in perspective, with the ceiling above it likewise octagonal, the
eight angles of which he foreshortened so well as to show that he had as
good a knowledge of this art as any of the others. It is said that the
Pope had offered a prize, which was to be given to the man who, in the
judgment of the Pontiff himself, should turn out to have done the best
work in these pictures. The scenes finished, therefore, His Holiness
went to see them; and each of the painters had done his utmost to merit
the said prize and honour. Cosimo, feeling himself weak in invention and
draughtsmanship, had sought to conceal his shortcomings by covering his
work with the finest ultramarine blues and other lively colours, and had
illuminated his scenes with a plentiful amount of gold, so that there
was no tree, or plant, or drapery, or cloud, that was not thus
illuminated; for he was convinced that the Pope, like a man who knew
little of that art, must therefore give him the prize of victory. When
the day arrived on which the works of all were to be unveiled, that of
Cosimo was seen with the rest, and was scorned and ridiculed with much
laughter and jeering by all the other craftsmen, who all mocked him
instead of having compassion on him. But the scorners turned out to be
the scorned, for, as Cosimo had foreseen, those colours at the first
glance so dazzled the eyes of the Pope, who had little knowledge of such
things, although he took no little delight in them, that he judged the
work of Cosimo to be much better than that of the others. And so,
causing the prize to be given to him, he bade all the others cover their
pictures with the best blues that could be found, and to pick them out
with gold, to the end that they might be similar to those of Cosimo in
colouring and in richness. Whereupon the poor painters, in despair at
having to satisfy the small intelligence of the Holy Father, set
themselves to spoil all the good work that they had done; and Cosimo
laughed at the men who had just been laughing at his methods.
Afterwards, returning to Florence with some money, he set himself to
work as usual, living much at his ease, and having as his companion that
Piero, his disciple, who was ever called Piero di Cosimo, and who
assisted him in his labours in the Sistine Chapel at Rome, and painted
there, besides other things, a landscape in the picture of the Preaching
of Christ, which landscape is held to be the best thing there. Andrea di
Cosimo also worked with him, occupying himself much with grotesques.
Finally, having reached the age of sixty-eight, Cosimo died in the year
1484, wasted away by a long infirmity; and he was buried in S. Croce by
the Company of Bernardino.
Cosimo took so much delight in alchemy that he wasted therein all that
he possessed, as all do who meddle with it, insomuch that it swallowed
up all his means and finally reduced him from easy circumstances to the
greatest poverty. He was a very good draughtsman, as may be seen in our
book, not only from the drawing of the aforesaid story of the Preaching
which he painted in the Sistine Chapel, but also from many others made
with the style and in chiaroscuro. And in the said book we have his
portrait by the hand of Agnolo di Donnino, a painter who was much his
friend. This Agnolo showed great diligence in his works, as may be seen,
not to mention his drawings, in the loggia of the Hospital of Bonifazio,
where, upon the corbel of a vault, there is a Trinity in fresco by his
hand; and beside the door of the said hospital, where the foundlings now
live, there are certain beggars painted by the same man, with the
Director receiving them, all very well wrought, and likewise certain
women. This man spent his life labouring and wasting all his time over
drawings, without putting them into execution; and at length he died as
poor as he could well be. But to return to Cosimo; he left only one son,
who was a builder and a passing good architect.
[Illustration: CHRIST HEALING THE LEPER
(_Detail from the fresco by =Cosimo Rosselli=. Rome: Sistine Chapel_)
_Anderson_]
CECCA
CECCA
ENGINEER OF FLORENCE
If necessity had not forced men to exercise their ingenuity for their
own advantage and convenience, architecture would not have become so
excellent and so marvellous in the minds and in the works of those who
have practised it in order to acquire profit and fame, gaining that
great honour which is paid to them every day by all who have knowledge
of the good. It was necessity that first gave rise to buildings;
necessity that created ornaments for them; necessity that led to the
various Orders, the statues, the gardens, the baths, and all those other
sumptuous adjuncts which all desire but few possess; and it was
necessity that excited rivalry and competition in the minds of men with
regard not only to buildings, but also to their accessories. For this
reason craftsmen have been forced to display industry in inventing
appliances for traction, and in making engines of war, waterworks, and
all those devices and contrivances which, under the name of mechanical
and architectural inventions, confer beauty and convenience on the
world, discomfiting their enemies and assisting their friends. And
whenever a man has been able to make such things better than his
fellows, he has not only raised himself beyond all the anxieties of
want, but has also been consummately extolled and prized by all other
men.
This was the case in the time of our fathers with the Florentine Cecca,
into whose hands there came many highly honourable works in his day; and
in these he acquitted himself so well, toiling in the service of his
country with economy and with great satisfaction to his fellow-citizens,
that his ingenious and industrious labours have made him famous and
illustrious among the number of distinguished and renowned craftsmen.
It is said that in his youth Cecca was a very good carpenter, and that
he had concentrated all his powers on seeking to solve the difficulties
connected with engines, and how to make machines for assaulting walls in
war--scaling-ladders for climbing into cities, battering-rams for
breaching fortifications, defences for protecting soldiers in the
attack, and everything that could injure his enemies and assist his
friends--wherefore, being a person of the greatest utility to his
country, he well deserved the permanent provision that the Signoria of
Florence gave him. For this reason, when there was no war going on, he
would go through the whole territory inspecting the fortresses and the
walls of cities and townships, and, if any were weak, he would provide
them with designs for ramparts and everything else that was wanting.